Belle Papier {pretty paper}

Time for another holiday design! Slowly I’m working on getting my Christmas cards done. I know a lot of people design one card and mass produce but I just have fun designing each one unique. For this design, I was having fun with my new Flourishes Peace & O Christmas Tree stamp sets. Don’t you just love that script? The tree branches is the Christmas tree from the O Christmas Tree stamped around the edges of the River Rock cardstock.

Homey Holidays

For this design, I wanted to try out a warm, homey look…something a little different. I had this darling new Little Boys paper pack from Cosmo Cricket…love it! It is so sweet and beautiful! I love how flexible it is and wanted to try it out and see if I could make it work for a Christmas design. Do you ever do that? Take paper designed for one theme and make it work for another? I loved taking the Basic Grey Blush last year and using it for Christmas. It was gorgeous! And so, that brings me to the challenge part of this entry. Want to take me up on it?

The Challenge: Take some patterned paper that was meant for a particular theme and use it for a totally different one. See my examples above. So use Christmas paper for another theme, Baby themed paper for an everyday card…whatever. You can comment back on this entry if you wish with your link so that we can check out your ideas.

For this design, I used the sentiment as the focal point of my design. I stamped it onto Very Vanilla Cardstock and then sponged and distressd the edges. I layered it onto the darling plaid Cosmo Cricket Little Boys collection patterned paper and then added some hand stitching to the ends with linen thread. I knew I wanted a homey look to this design and what is more “homespun” looking that hand stitching?!

Quick Tip: When hand stitching paper, you must first pierce the paper with a sharp object before stitching or you will pucker the paper. I use my Stampin Up Mat pack to help pierce my paper to easily get great even stitches.

For the main card base, I used a 5.25″ square card of bordering blue and then layered it with my stamped and sponged river rock cardstock. I then used the blue stripe paper from the same paper pack and zig zagged it to the card front. You know how I love to use my sewing machine!

After adhering both parts of the design together, it still needed a little something. I tucked a little punched river rock tag behind the sentiment panel and stapled a red ribbon to it for a festive touch. The word Joy from the Flourished Words stamp set was then stamped onto the little tag.

To balance out my design, I added two more embellishments to give it more of a subtle Christmas look. A little strip of red rhinestones from A Muse Art Stamps adds some bling and highlights the sentiment. The blue snowflake brad at the top adds a wintery look as well.

So…what do you think? Did little boy paper work OK into a subtle Christmas design? I like it. Hope the recipient does too!

Supply List:

Cardstock: River Rock, Very Vanilla, Bordering Blue - Stampin Up

Patterned Paper: Little Boys 8×8 paper pack - Cosmo Cricket

Stamps: Flourished Words, Peace, O Christmas Tree - Flourishes

Ink: Black, Close to Cocoa - Stampin Up

Other: sewing machine, snowflake brad - Creative Impressions, rhinestones - A Muse Art Stamps, tag punch & Ribbon & linen thread- Stampin up, stapler

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